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Thursday, May 7, 2009

AP and Talent(lessness)

Every Thursday night at promptly ten o'clock, my friend, Adam (acheronwalthers), texts me the best quote from that week's episode of 30 Rock. In case you were wondering, "When's your cult committing suicide?" Hahahahaha. Tina Fey is a goddess.

Today I took the AP English Literature & Composition exam. The proctor lied to us and said they give different tests on the east and west coasts, but through some stealthy methods-- which do not include talking about the test, since that's against the rules-- I'm able to assume that we all took the same one. [Note: In case you matter in the AP world and are reading this, no, we did not steal anything or commit any crimes. The suspicion was verified through a single word.] I think I did well. I'd rate my first two essays at about sevens, probably (they're on a scale from 0-9), and if it were up to me, I'd give my free response a nine. I wrote about The Catcher in the Rye, and all kinds of hidden brilliance poured out of my brain from places I didn't even know I had. It's a shame that I'll never see that composition again, because I honestly think it's one of the best AP-style literature analyses I've ever written. Scoooore.

I forfeited the opportunity to make a 5AG video (I am a bad, bad, bad youtuber!) to attend my school's talent show tonight with my friend, Lauren. Nothing particularly spectacular or noteworthy. A baton twirler, an Irish dancer, a couple acoustic guitars, and the ever-so-predictable high school bands with more volume than talent. I felt like I was doing someone a favor for sitting through the whole thing, as the house lights were left on haphazardly for half the show, and there were countless bursts of white people attempting to clap in time. It did serve, however, to remind me just how little I will miss the American public school system. Two. Weeks. Two weeks.

Today is awesome because I ate raw cookie dough in the back of the auditorium while a group of white boys rapped into faulty microphones. Today is also awesome because of this quote from TOLauren: "Can I write your blog for you? I'll do the 'today I went to school and ate food' part, and you can add metaphors and shit." But all in all, today is awesome because I'm DONE with standardized tests, and I'm going to go take a shower now.

My AP teacher predicted and was correct about Question 1 and 3. And for question 3, I simply wrote about Hamlet. It was my back up and I had written on it the day before. So, it was all fresh in my mind.

My friend texted me her favorite 30 Rock quote... the one about the Sims! So funny. Although at the time, I hadn't watched it yet (I record it) and I was like "Oh, I love sims!" Then, I watched the show and got it. :]

Not looking forward to AP testing next year. My friend who took to Spanish AP exam had his facebook status as "Trying to learn how to say 'I do not understand your accent' in Spanish". I prefer my GT English class to the pre-AP English class. Today we presented our Lord of the Flies creative interpretations. We had everything from a rapper (he's pretty good) to an island made from cake to a "The Office" style news report about the boy's return to civilzation. Good times.

I took the AP Lit & Comp exam today tooooo! It wasn't nearly as stressful or hard as I thought it would be and I was happy with my essays. Before, the prospect of 3 essays in 2 hours seemed utterly brain-frying, but it wasn't so bad...I so so so wish I could somehow get my essays back, too...*sigh*

Boo to the AP tests...I took some of those classes my senior year just for the heck of it and now that I look back on it I don't know why I even bothered. Turns out my college wouldn't even accept the AP credits so I ended up taking pretty much the same classes again....dumb dumb dumb. Doesn't it feel surreal that you're almost done with high school? You're used to being in this one place, doing the same thing...and then before you know it, it's all over....I just find it hard to believe sometimes...and I've been out for 3 years

Oy. I remember the AP days. (Odd. I say that as if it wasn't just one year ago that I sat in my high school's crappy "portables" racing the clock to fit in three halfway-coherent essays before the little egg timer on the proctor's desk PINGed.) Congratulations on making it through! On the free response, I believe I wrote about Catch-22. Catch-22. Catcher in the Rye. I see a trend. Apparently all it takes to make AP essay-worthy literature is to use the word "catch" somewhere in the title. Interesting. :P If your essays were even a vague impression of the beautiful writing you do here on your blog and elsewhere, I'm sure you'll get a 5. :)

No doubt you will pass, but however, I just want to warn you that you may not get such shiny scores.

I was told that I had a the probability of getting a score between 5 and 7, but it turns out the test scorers hated life and took it out on us poor highschoolers and not many out of my entire senior class got a score above 4.

I don't say this to discourage you, but to prepare you. Besides, none of us were the writes you are. So live long and prosper and don't forget to stay out of the old man's yard.

I sang Collin's solo, too! Best of luck in the audition, Hayley. And YAY for being done standardized testing - I graduated last year (up here in Canada, mind you), and we had to write diploma exams worth 50% of our final grades. Oh, the stress. I only wish university got easier.

Hayley? I am 94% sure you can pay a bit extra and get them to give you your essay packet back. I don't know if you're THAT thrilled about the Catcher in the Rye essay, but you should asks someone official. Like, a teacher? Or your proctor (who was definitely wrong by the way).

Congratulations on being done. I was so relieved.

Oh, and this is my first comment and I'm going to repeat what another first commenter said. I know you don't know me, and I hope this isn't creepy.

Good luck! They're singing Seasons of Love for our high school showcase. Like a talent show but the only people who show up and perform are drama club members. And at the point in time, the school still hasn't given us permission to use the stage. Our athletic director is in charge of that, and, surprise!, he doesn't really care.

I, on the other hand, died a little bit on the AP US History exam this morning. Never mind that I stayed up until at least midnight every night this week studying for it. It pwned me. Hopefully I do half as well on Chemistry next week as you did on Lit.

The 3rd essay actually took me by surprise. It seemed too... easy. I was prepared for a more specific question. I ended up writing about Othello, though looking back I wish I had chosen Heart of Darkness. I predict a 4 overall. :D

Hey Hayley... So after reading your blog for a month I've been having larger and larger cravings for Chipotle... and I hold you responsible. I used to live in Austin and ate it about once every two weeks at least, but there isn't one where I live. So is it sad that last night as I was planning my road trip up north this summer I looked at the website to see where I will be eating on my 8 hour drive. The answer: Atlanta, and or Greenville. Damn you hayleyghoover!

Oh all I have to look forward to when I start AP next year. lol. Good luck with the whole Collins thing :] Love the blog :P And Jordiekins, I'm extremely jealous that you get to go see Wicked! That book and soundtrack are amazing.

I took the same test! Oh, boy. I wrote about Doll's House and it was sort of the worst essay I've ever written (which is, of course, a flaming hyperbole) but I ROCKED the poetry essay. Like, to the ground. I wrote about stuff Shakespeare himself didn't know he was writing about.